“Boutiques: Highly evolved” and “The Bar Elite: Silk and steel” were published in Legal Business, on 17 May 2018, and can be found here and here.

Boutiques: Highly evolved

“With the disputes market evolving and clients becoming more discerning, it has been a phenomenal ten years for boutique law firms focused on litigation. The pressure on generalist, mid-market dispute teams has played towards this dynamic, leaving true contentious specialists increasingly going head-to-head with the traditional London elite…

“…Growth has been dramatic at Signature. The firm capped off a run of high-profile mandates to record a 16% uptick in revenue for the 2016/17 financial year. Among the cases was The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) group action, in which the firm represented thousands of investors in a £4bn rights-issue dispute. Under Signature’s profit-sharing scheme, 21% of profits were paid out to staff.

“Signature partner Graham Huntley, who led for the firm on the RBS case, comments: ‘We take the benefits of our simplicity and efficiency to offer clients lower-charging models. It would also have been a great shame if we hadn’t taken the opportunity of a blank sheet of paper to create a whole new economic and management model for law firms, which is what we did six years ago.’”

The Bar Elite: Silk and steel

“Despite Brexit, costs pressures and the loss of financial crisis work, reports of the commercial Bar’s decline are overblown. We identify the sets and the silks redefining the modern Bar”

Commenting on Mark Hapgood QC of Brick Court Chambers, Graham Huntley said: “in an increasingly inhospitable litigation environment, [Mark] stands out as a first class human being as well as advocate.”